Ventura Chosen as Future Site of Veterans Home

Six years after local advocates first conceived of building a retirement home for veterans, a state commission on Monday picked Ventura as the best site for the last of four such facilities.

The decision came at a San Diego hearing, where the Governor’s Commission on Southern California Veterans Home concluded 18 months of testimony and deliberations.

“Ventura is an excellent site for a veterans home,” said Thomas R. Langley, an official with the California Department of Veterans Affairs who coordinated the select commission. “The commission liked the fact that the Santa Barbara outpatient center is only 30 miles away and that the Los Angeles VA Hospital is only 60 miles away.”

The commission recommendation, which will be sent to Gov. Pete Wilson and members of the state Legislature, was hailed by Ventura County activists.

“Whoopee!” cried Roy Chambers. The Oxnard veteran has pushed the Ventura retirement home proposal for six years. “You don’t know how long we’ve worked for this. This is a big relief for a lot of people.”

State veterans officials several years ago announced plans to construct a string of retirement homes for war veterans with no other place to spend their final years.

With four homes planned for Southern California, the lobbying by local government jurisdictions began soon after the announcement and continued through Monday.

“There were several excellent propositions put forth, notably from West Los Angeles and the [Riverside County] city of Perris,” Langley said. “But the commission opted to go with the one that would best serve the veterans.”

Each of the $33-million homes is expected to treat about 400 veterans with no place else to live. They will offer limited health-care services and provide transit to nearby shopping districts and VA hospitals.

The Ventura facility would be built on 22 acres near Telephone Road and Saticoy Avenue.

A veterans home is now open in Barstow, and money has been set aside for another retirement home in Chula Vista. The third home is proposed for Lancaster, although officials are concerned the site may be too close to the Barstow facility.

Local veterans said Monday that they will work to push the Ventura retirement home proposal ahead of the facility planned in Lancaster.

“The money is approved for sites two and three,” said Chuck Bennett, a Vietnam veteran who chairs the Tri-Counties Veterans Home Coalition, which has spearheaded the Ventura retirement home plan.

“So if we get to move ahead of Lancaster, we could be moving on a home in two to three years,” Bennett said. “And we feel pretty sure that we could leapfrog ahead of Lancaster.”

Langley, who has advised and coordinated the 12-member commission for 1 1/2 years, said the panelists were impressed with the interest shown by Ventura County officials.

“One of the things that did it was the support by the state legislators [from Ventura County], the county Board of Supervisors, the cities in Ventura County and the Chumash Nation,” he said.

“Without all of their support, it wouldn’t have gone through,” Langley said.

Initially, the proposal for a veterans home at the Saticoy Avenue location met with strong opposition from local Chumash Indians, who said the area was a sacred burial ground.

But after months of negotiations among the city, the landowner and Chumash descendants, a compromise was reached: Wittenberg-Livingston, the home building firm that owns the property, would donate the land for the home as well as a four-acre Native American memorial.

In exchange, the home builders received approval to build hundreds of tract houses on nearby property the company owns.

Mayor Jack Tingstrom, who flew to San Diego to lobby on behalf of the home, said the governor’s commission understood the benefits of building the center in Ventura.

“They had laid down 22 criteria, and we pretty much answered all of them,” Tingstrom said. “This site has everything close to it: shopping, recreation, transportation, hospitals.

“I also told them that we as a council and we as a city are willing to help make this happen ASAP.”

Al Sanderlin, a Ventura resident who spent two years with the occupation forces in Germany during World War II, said the veterans home would give folks like himself an opportunity for housing if they ever need help.

“Moving into a home like this is a nice option to have,” he said. “This is going to be great news for many of the veterans in our community.”